


Ben and Patty go to a Chanukah party

by caimani



Category: As It Is (Band)
Genre: Family, Fluff, Food, Gen, Hanukkah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 23:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16842400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Exactly what the title says.





	Ben and Patty go to a Chanukah party

**Author's Note:**

> happy chanukah everyone!! spell it however you want, as long as its fun and peaceful and full of good food. enjoy this fun little thing :3

The deal is simple. Ben will accompany Patty to his awkward family-and-friends-of-the-family Christmas party if Patty will come with Ben to Ben’s awkward family-and-friends-of-the-family Chanukah party. Ben honestly thinks he’s getting the better half of the deal. Because, of course, since Patty’s not Jewish, people will understand Ben asking them to explain things for him. It’s the perfect cover for Ben having forgotten the traditional songs and stuff.

Patty’s understandably nervous about the whole thing, even though Ben’s been assuring him nonstop that it’s going to be fine.

“I did a bit of research on it,” Patty says as they’re making their way to the party. “I, um, I might need help remembering which letter is which. On the dreidel. You said they’re going to have that, right?”

“Yeah, that’s one of the games,” Ben says. He glances over at Patty and feels a bit guilty when he notices how tense Patty still is. “Nobody’s going to make fun of you if you don’t know things. Half the people there are grandmas who brought their old family recipes. Really, it’s just lighting candles and food.”

Patty closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Alright.”

They arrive a bit late, and Ben blames traffic as his mum scolds him softly. Everyone’s gathered around the chanukiah as someone that Ben doesn’t recognize lights the candles. Patty moves to hover at the edge of the crowd, watching. 

“It’s a really pretty menorah,” Patty says in a quiet voice.

“It’s a chanukiah,” Ben corrects. 

“Oh, sorry,” Patty says.

“No, you’re alright, it’s just got a special name,” Ben says. He leans against the wall of the room as most of the older adults in the room start singing a song in Yiddish. He hums along, like most of the kids are doing. Patty moves to stand next to him. After a moment, he starts humming along, catching on to the melody.

Ben smiles at that. It looks like Patty might already be feeling more comfortable. 

After the song, the gathering around the chanukiah breaks up and almost everyone starts towards the kitchen. Ben and Patty wait in the living room as the kids in the room run past them, yelling excitedly as the parents follow after them. Patty walks closer to the chanukiah.

“It’s been in the family for decades,” says one of the grandmas who have stayed in the room. 

“It’s beautiful,” Patty says. 

“Thank you,” the grandma says. Ben feels a bit bad that he can’t remember her name. Some friend of his grandma, he thinks. “You’re Ben’s friend?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’m Patty,” Patty says, extending his hand towards her.

“Oh look at you, being all polite and formal,” the grandma says with a smile. “I’m Bubbe Sarah, welcome to my home!” She pulls Patty into a big warm grandma hug instead, and Ben jumps forward to rescue his friend. Thankfully, the hug doesn’t last long, and Patty only looks a little shaken. Probably still just a bit of culture shock. Hopefully.

“This is Patty’s first Chanukah,” Ben says.

“Oh!” Sarah says. “Well thank you very much for coming, Patty. And Ben, thank you for bringing him. You’ve got to have some good old fashioned Chanukah treats, Patty. Come on into the kitchen.”

She starts leading the way into the kitchen. Ben looks at Patty and is relieved to see that Patty’s smiling and not holding himself so tensely anymore. 

“See?” he says, nudging Patty as they head to the kitchen. “By the end of the night, they’re going to love you more than me.”

Patty laughs. “I don’t know about that.”

The kitchen is crowded with people filling their plates with food. Sufganiyot, kugel, challah, brisket, rugelach, apple cake, babka, and of course, latkes. Ben feels himself start to salivate over all the foods that he only sees once a year. And it looks like about ten different people have all brought their own family recipes for latkes. Ben reaches eagerly for a plate to load it up.

Patty grabs his arm. “Um,” he says, keeping his voice low. “Is, uh, what’s vegan and what’s got like… eggs in it?”

Oh. 

Shit. 

Ben forgot about that. “Ah,” he says, looking over the spread of food. “I think… latkes are just potato, I think?”

“What’s wrong?” Sarah says, coming over to them but looking specifically at Patty. 

“I, uh— sorry, I don’t… eat animals and—”

“Oh! Vegetarian, right?” Sarah says enthusiastically. “Then my latkes will be perfect for you, Patty. No egg, no milk, just crispy potato goodness. Come on, we’ve also got plenty of applesauce and— Rosie! Your babka is vegetarian, right?”

Patty holds still as Sarah piles his plate full of the vegan latkes, along with generous servings of the applesauce and babka. Ben moves to the other side of the table of food to pick out everything he likes, and then he meets up with Patty again to sit down somewhere.

Patty picks up one of the latkes in his hand and takes a bite. Then his face lights up. 

“This is amazing,” he says with a mouthful of fried potato, and quickly scarfs down the rest of the latke. 

“Yeah, there’s nothing like Chanukah food,” Ben says. He starts on his own food as Patty eats latke after latke with gusto. 

Actually, Patty might be getting a bit too…

“Hey, you might want to slow down, have a bit of the applesauce in between them—”

“No, these are too good,” Patty says. 

Ben forgets his food for a moment as Patty continues to devour the mountain of latkes Sarah gave him. Damn it, Patty is going to make himself sick. Not the best way to remember his first Chanukah celebration. 

“Once you’re done with those—”

“I’m getting more,” Patty declares. 

Ben snorts. “No, then we’re playing with the dreidel until you learn the names of all the letters on it. You’ll catch on quick, I promise.”

Unfortunately, Patty does get up to get more latkes before Ben’s done with his own plate of food. Well, hopefully he won’t regret all the fried potato in his stomach later. Ben’s seen him go mad when presented with vegan junk food before, so this might go the same. Patty compliments both Sarah and the grandma named Rosey when he goes to get more, and both of them beam at his words and encourage him to take extra. Okay, Ben needs to be a better chaperone soon.

He prevents Patty from getting thirds and drags him to another room where there are several groups sitting around tables or in circles on the floor with piles of chocolate coins and spinning dreidels. Ben and Patty join the smallest group.

Ben takes the dreidel as someone gives him and Patty each a pile of chocolate coins. “Okay, Patty, so this is Nun. When you spin it and it lands on this, nothing happens.” He shows Patty the letter and then turns it to another side. “This is Gimel.”

“Gimel looks a lot like Nun,” Patty says.

“Yeah,” Ben admits. “But it’s got this bit at the bottom.”

Patty doesn’t look very confident. 

“We’ll explain as we go along,” the guy across from Ben says. “To start, everyone puts in gelt.”

Ben puts in a chocolate coin and Patty mirrors him. They start playing, passing the dreidel around and spinning it, and winning and losing chocolate coins. Patty actually catches on pretty quickly, and it only takes him a few turns to learn the names and what happens. He’s lucky too—luckier than Ben, whose pile of coins dwindles as Patty’s grows. 

He laughs as Patty laughs. 

“Looks like you’re having fun,” he says, playing with his little stack of chocolate coins.

“Yeah!” Patty says. “Thanks, Ben. I can’t say my family’s party is going to be as fun as this—”

“As long as there’s alcohol, I can manage it,” Ben says. Alcohol and a room away from the nonstop Christmas music, preferably. And of course, free food.

Patty laughs again. “Yeah, I’ll be your sober ride home from that, I promise. I won’t even complain about it if you help me get Bubbe Sarah’s latke recipe.”

“You’re going to eat too many of those and regret it,” Ben warns him as he picks up the dreidel for his turn.

“Never,” Patty says. “They’re so good, I want more. I need to know how to make them.”

Ben shakes his head, chuckling. When Patty does learn how to make them, he might just have to invite himself over to Patty’s place. Bubbe Sarah did make some amazing latkes, even without eggs holding them together. He might be thinking about going back to get himself some seconds too.

Ben lands on Shin again. Patty lands on Hei again. 

Okay, yeah, it’s time to go back to the kitchen.

**Author's Note:**

> I once made vegan challah. it was okay. didnt quite taste like challah, but it was alright. idk how vegan babka would turn out, but hey theres a way to make vegan everything. rosie probably did great


End file.
